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Welcome back to the Fun House Mirror, the column that looks at an MMA show that has the feel of an old school territory professional wrestling show and a United States company that wants to put out a Lucha Libre influenced product.
This week on the Ultimate fighter we have two fights on tap: Johnathon Brookins versus "Psycho" Sako Chivitchian and Cody McKinie versus Nam Phan. The last time we had two fights in one show they were both squash matches. Will we get more competitive matches this time?
VTR come on!
Sako cuts a promo saying that Johnathon Brookins eliminated his friend Sevak Magakian so his bout with Johnathon has that much more riding on it: the pride of Armenia.
In Team GSP's training camp GSP gives the news that they will no longer be doing full speed stressful practice, but instead concentrating on tactics with the idea being that when they get into the octagon they will miss going all out and fight like animals.
In Team Koscheck's training camp the emphasis is defending against Brookins taking Sako's back. Sako's strategy is to keep the match standing and try to knock Johnathon out. Sako runs down the match up saying that he is Johnathon's equal in all things so there is no way that he can lose, conveniently forgetting that to expect victory you should be better than your opponent in at least something.
We then get some bonding between Nam and Brookins which makes sense for Nam since he is not anything like the other members of Team Koscheck personality wise. This point is driven home by shots of Mini-Josh clowning around in a homo-erotic fashion wearing only his underwear.
It's fight time and DW says that both guys are great on the ground which should make for an interesting fight, conveniently forgetting that both guys are shown saying that their strategy is a stand up war.
The tale of the tape shows that Brookins has a one inch height and reach advantage and is two years younger.
It's round one action and Sako comes out pushing the pace with jabs. Brookins goes for a take down but gets stacked up against the fence. Brookins is able to wiggle off of the fence and hits THE HEAD AND NECK SUPLEX and takes Sako's back. From there Brookins simply waits for Sako to get frustrated and give up his neck which he does two and a half minutes into the fight. One rear naked choke later, IT IS OVER! Brookins by tap out.
Sako is not happy with the result.
Josh is disturbed that the match was so similar to Johnathon versus Sevak.
Sako beats himself up for not backing up after Brookins' failed take down and accuses himself of forgetting the game plan.
Time for Cody McKinie versus Nam Phan. Cody is shown as a guy with supreme self confidence who says that the only guy he didn't submit with his guillotine he let out of guillotine because he got bored and wanted to knock someone out.
This could be a difficult fight for Nam because Nam doesn't really have a finishing hold he can build towards.
GSP is very worried about Nam because Nam is better at striking and Jujitsu than Cody. GSP wants Cody to keep Nam against the fence and take him down to neutralize Nam's strengths.
Josh on the other hand has a personal grudge against Cody and wants Nam to beat the heck out of Cody.
Nam is then shown going through his entire team as they try to hold him down with a guillotine choke.
And, it's fight time and Nam has his pyscho killer face on.
We go to the octagon and again Cody refuses to uphold the code of honor and tap gloves at the start of the match.
The tale of the tape shows that Cody is six inches taller and has a five inch reach advantage on Nam as well as being five years younger.
The first round begins and Cody decides that he will absolutely stick to the game plan and Nam winds up being pinned up against the cage for most of the first round. On the brief moments when they were not jockeying for position against the cage Nam lands some solid strikes, but if I was one of the judges I might have to give the round to Cody for controlling the action.
However, Cody looks badly gassed between rounds.
Round two start with Cody trying to do the same things as he did in round one but it is not to be. Even though he gets Nam against the cage several times, each time Nam is able to escape the cage without damage. Worse for Cody is the fact that Nam is consistently finding his range and using Cody's chin as a punching bag. With two minutes left in the fight Nam unleashes the dreaded LIVER PUNCH and Cody goes down like a ton of bricks. IT'S OVER!
Cody is not happy with losing. Josh is more than happy to rub it in.
Next week, the final two quarterfinals matches: Kyle Watson versus Aaron Wilkenson and Michael Johnson versus Alex "Bruce LeRoy" Caceres. Plus the pairings for the two semifinal matches.
On the Podcast-a-go-go this week for Chikara they have action from the Cleveland show "Faded Scars and Lines".
In the first match we have Player Dos taking on the mammoth Tursas from the BDK. This is a big man little man match but fortunately Tursas does a good job of realistically selling for smaller fighters. Tursas wins with a cross body block off the second turnbuckle, but not before Dos hits him with a number of sweet looking super kicks.
The second match is tag team action as Frightmare and Lightning Mike Quackenbush take on the BDK duo of Lince Dorado and Pink Ant Pinkie Sanchez. This one starts with a hot tag from Frightmare to Quack and then Mike and Pinkie go toe to toe. Mike tries for the Black Tornado Slam but Pinkie blocks it and then turns Mike inside out with an elbow. But, Quack battles back and finally hits the BTS for a two and a half. Later on in the match Quack and Fright have things going their way hitting a combo on Pinkie with a kick to the back of the head/palm strike to the front of the head followed by a super kick. But, Tursas slowly and ominously approaches ring side.
What happens next? Well they have links on the Chikara website to a streaming site and a site to buy the DVD if you need to know.
So, next week on TUF another two bout show. Until then!
